Role of Glass in Green Architecture

Green building design criteria emphasizes the energy-efficient performance of fenestration materials and maximum
use of natural daylight. Given this background, Glass is an indispensable material for green building. It has a wide
range of functional benefits. Its transparency allows day-lighting of the interiors and integrates the interiors with the
exteriors. Studies have proven time and again that this substantially improves the productivity and health of the
occupants of the building.

Glass is completely recyclable and non-toxic in nature. It satisfies all the ecological parameters of being the most
sought after “green” building material in Green Buildings. Moreover it harmonizes a structure with its environment.

Glass has varied “Green” benefits of which, some of them are:

? Day-lighting - The use of glass brings in lot of light that helps in giving a high amount of natural day lighting instead
of depending solely on artificial lighting thus reducing considerably electricity consumption.
? Blending interiors with exteriors (Views) - Glass facades give a spectacular view of the outside world from the cozy
interiors.
? Recyclability - Glass being recyclable satisfies the important parameter of being a “Green” building material.
? Achieving energy efficiency - High performance glass helps in controlling the solar and thermal heat in the interiors
and helps to maintain the temperature at its minimum best and in turn helps to tone down the air-conditioning
expenses.
? Innovative application - Being very flexible building material glass helps to satisfy and capture an architect's
utmost imagination in its shape and form.
? Controls noise: Double glazed glass facades help in achieving a high degree of acoustic comfort by keeping away
noise penetrating from the exteriors to the interiors thus ensuring a calmer atmosphere inside.
? Self Cleaning: The future belongs to self-cleaning glass which keeps itself clean on its own and brings out an ever
sparkling effect.

Glass and LEED Rating

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green
Building Council (USGBC), provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction.

The LEED rating system for Green buildings has six major areas of which four have the potential to be tapped through
appropriate usage of High Performance Glass in design:

? Sustainable sites
? Water efficiency
? Energy and atmosphere
? Materials and resources High Performance
? Indoor environmental quality Glass Impact
? Innovation and design process
Role of Glass in Green Architecture
ENERGY & ATMOSPHERE (EA)
Optimize Energy Performance
The building facade, windows, doors, and skylights can be designed with high performance glass to meet the desired
solar heat gain coefficient and U-value requirements. The use of glass can let in adequate daylight resulting in
reduction of artificial lighting costs. A complete energy simulation for the building is possible nowadays and helps to
improve the energy performance of the design.

MATERIALS & RESOURCES (MR)

Regional Materials
The distance from the glass manufacturing/fabrication facility to the job site (within 500 miles radius) is a major
factor in gaining points under the Regional Materials Credit. The wide network of Saint-Gobain Glass' processors and
fabricators helps under this category.

INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (EQ)

Daylight and Views
High Performance glass from Saint-Gobain helps to blend the twin actions of achieving desired levels of daylight and
transparency to enable external views. The letting in of natural light helps cut down on the artificial lighting costs. .

INNOVATION & DESIGN PROCESS (ID)

Innovation in Design
Saint-Gobain Glass addresses needs such as Acoustic Insulation, Self-cleaning etc apart from the prescribed
requirements of Energy Efficiency, Recyclability and Day-lighting. High performance glass when used in Double Glazed
panels or as Laminated units provide higher degree of Acoustic Insulation that ward off unwanted noise from the
external atmosphere. Saint-Gobain also offers Self-cleaning glass that can keep itself clean without any maintenance
hassles.

Thus the overall innovative use of High Performance Glass from Saint-Gobain in a building can fetch upto 13% of the
overall points in the LEED Rating system.

Choosing Glass
In tropical countries like India, one needs to be careful in selecting the right glass solution. Selecting the right kind of
product is critical in maximizing the benefits possible from glass.
Broadly glass can be chosen according to the performance needs and the aesthetic needs. For a Green Building it is
important to choose a glass solution that gives high performance without compromising on aesthetics.

PERFORMANCE CRITERIA
Optimum Light Transmission (LT)
As India is a tropical climate, we have abundant sunlight. Ironically the bill on artificial lighting contributes 20% to the
total spend on electricity. The facts in reality are :
Role of Glass in Green Architecture
? The lux level from direct sunlight is around 1,13,000 Lux.
? The lux level in shade is around 9,000 Lux.
? Brightly lit interiors which are conducive for working require 500 Lux.

High Performance Glass helps in cutting down excessive glare and brings in abundant natural light thus reducing the
dependence on artificial lighting.

Energy Efficiency
In climatic conditions like India, 80% of the total heat gain is due to direct solar radiation and the rest is due to
temperature difference between the exteriors and interiors. Thus to reduce the overall Relative Heat Gain (RHG) in
tropical climates, it becomes necessary to curtail the incoming solar radiation by the use of glass with high
performance solar “control” coating. Contrary to this, in cold climates the emphasis is on glass with low-emissive
coatings to reduce the rate of heat loss from interiors to exteriors.

The total heat gain is measured in terms of Solar Factor and U-value and is expressed as a sum of these two
components.

Solar Factor :
Heat gain on the inside of the building due to direct solar radiation incident on glass is measured through the solar
factor of glass.

Solar Factor: It is the sum of percentage of incident solar energy directly transmitted and incident solar energy
absorbed and re-emitted inside.

1# 2#

(a) incident
solar radiation (b) directly
(c) reflected transmitted
energy energy
(d) re-emitted (e) re-emitted
energy energy

Solar factor : (b+e)/a

U-Value
Heat gain due to temperature difference is expressed by U-Value of a glass.

U-Value: It is the amount of heat transferred(lost/gain),due to a temperature differential of 1OC between inside and
outside per square meter.
Role of Glass in Green Architecture
The best energy performance is obtained from a glass solution which is lower in terms of Solar factor and the U-value.
Thus the best option for tropical climates, is to use glass with high performance solar control coatings double glazed
with low-emissive glass to reduce the overall heat gain.

AESTHETIC NEEDS
The High Performance Energy efficient glass solutions from Saint-Gobain have also been categorized under the
various Houses of Color to enable comparison of the products based on aesthetic considerations.
The Houses of Color are:
1. Neutrals
2. Metals
3. Blues
4. Greens
5. Blue-Green

Shortly, India would have stringent regulations to conserve energy by way of the Energy Conservation Building Code
(ECBC) that would impact upcoming buildings and buildings going in for renovation. Saint-Gobain Glass has a wide
range of ECBC Compliant products.
 Green Buildings by Saint-Gobain Glass

Olympia Tech Park, Chennai

Planitherm Pristine White to
Design Intent:
give a very low solar factor of
Relative Heat Gain (RHG) of
0.15 and U-value of 1.5 W/sqm
lesser than 150 W with Solar
resulting in an overall RHG of
Factor and U-Value lower than
130 W was specified and used
0.20 and 1.7 W/sqm
for the Green Building.
respectively was required
from the glass solution.
Novel Architectural design
resulted in increased
Glass Solution Used :
daylighting and blending
SGG Cool-Lite Titanium Blue
interiors with the exteriors.
double glazed with SGG

Design Intent :
ITC Green Center, Gurgaon

Overall energy efficiency of

the façade with optimum
l i g h t t ra n s m i s s i o n w a s
required. Particularly on the
Northern side, the glass
solution was required to give a
higher light transmission due
to the orientation of the
building and at the same time
control the temperature
difference.

Glass Solution Used :

SGG Cool-Lite Turquoise double glazed with SGG Ekologik was specified and glazed to give a very low solar
factor and U-value to provide an energy efficient solution with optimum light transmission.

Specifically for the northern side of the facade SGG Parsol Green double glazed with SGG Ekologik was used
to enable higher light transmission and at the same time provide the required U-value to maintain the
temperature differential from the interiors to the exteriors.
Grundfos Pumps, Chennai
natural light to the interiors and
Design Intent:
cuts down the heat. This resulted
Maximum daylighting was
in absolute non-usage of
intended without depending on
artificial lighting for the office
artificial lighting. An energy
spaces for the entire part of the
efficient skylight was called for
d a y. T h e a i r- c o n d i t i o n i n g
which could let in natural light
expenses also have been kept at
and at the same time cut down
their minimal best due to the
t h e h e at a n d re d u c e a i r-
energy efficient glazing. The
conditioning expenses. Moreover
external views now form at least
the external views needed to
95% of the regularly occupied
form at least 90% of the occupied
areas.
areas.

This green building consumes

Glass solution used:
25% less energy, compared to
SGG Antelio Plus Emerald Glaze
conventional building by
was used for the energy efficient
adopting above measures.
skylight that allows abundant

Wipro Technologies, Gurgaon

Wipro Technologies Gurgaon Development Centre is the
greenest building in India and second greenest building
in the world. The building has received 57 points and is
Platinum rated.

Wipro Technologies, Gurgaon is designed by the eminent

architectural firm, M/s Vidhur Bharadwaj & Associates
from Delhi.

building the glass was procured locally. This gives 1

Demographics:
point on the rating scale.
Plot size: 1.12 Acre
b.Glass has 15% recycle content plus it is 100%
Building floor space: 175,000 sqft (incl of basement)
recyclable. Recycle content has 2 points and Wipro got
both.
Benefit from proper use of glass:
3. By reducing energy requirement of the building by
Glass had contributed the following valuable points on
50% on the base case, Wipro could get 10 points.
LEED Rating:
1. More than 90% of the occupants in Wipro
Wipro Technologies reduces 51% energy on the base case.
Technologies building, get daylight and views of the
They opted for high performance glass which reduced
outside which gave the building 2 points in Indoor
the energy requirement by 5.6%.
Environment Quality.
2. As per green building norm of Material & Resources:
Summing up, in the case of Wirpo Technologies, glass
a.20% of the total material should be locally
contributed 2 clear points and 13 combined points.
manufactured. In the case of Wipro Technologies